Game 5: Columbia — The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

THE GOOD: The game-winning Drive. Down 20-17 with 2:26 remaining, the Quakers started their drive at their own 38. Just when the Red and Blue needed Billy Ragone to put things together, he found the accuracy that he had been missing for much of the day, completing 5 of 7 passes to lead Penn down the field to score the game-winning touchdown. Lyle Marsh caught 6 of his 7 passes out of the backfield on the drive, including a 41-yarder that took the Quakers over midfield, to the Columbia 18. Ultimately, it was the Ragone-Marsh connection that would end the drive. With the original play broken, and Ragone rolling to his left, Marsh slipped behind the defense to the back corner, where Ragone found him for the score.

THE BAD: The run defense. Penn didn’t have an answer to Columbia’s rushing attack. The Quakers allowed 207 yards on the ground on 37 attempts for an average of over 5.5 yards per carry. For the most part, the Quakers were getting to the runner but were unable to bring him down on that first contact. Columbia's lead rusher, Marcorus Garrett, rushed the ball 19 times for 128 yards, with 31 of them coming on…

THE UGLY: Garrett’s 2nd TD Run. Had the Quakers suddenly been playing two hand touch, this run still would’ve been a touchdown. Garrett took the ball, found a hole to the right side, and saw only green grass in front of him. No defender came within two yards of him until he was within five yards of the end zone. While captain Brandon Copeland said that fatigue had nothing to do with the defense’s performance, this was one play where the Quakers seemed to be caught catching their breath.